Cards of Lyoko
by Dartz the Fire Demon
Summary: The sequel to Prince's Return. Coauthored by Cdc100. Summary inside.
1. A Simple Card Game

Cards of Lyoko

Summary: The sequel to Xana's Revenge. Coauthored by Cdc100. Takes place  
the school year after Xana's Revenge. An old enemy returns, and the gang must play a deadly game to be rid of him. Code Lyoko x Kingdom Hearts x Sonic the Hedgehog x Xiaolin Showdown x Yu-Gi-Oh! x Yu-Gi-Oh! GX crossover.

Disclaimer: I do not own Code Lyoko, Xiaolin showdown, Kingdom Hearts, Sonic the Hedgehog, Yu-Gi-Oh, or Yu-Gi-Oh GX. I only own my OCs. Cdc100 owns the story's plot and the OCs Garrett and Chris.

Me: This is another joint project between Cdc100 and me. Just a note, this story has a LOT of dueling in it. If you don't like it, then don't read it. It's that simple.

Duel Notes:  
When we display a Duel's stats, they are in this format:  
(Name of Duelist LP: # of Life Points remaining)  
(Name of Monster: Level/Type/Attribute/Attack/Defense)

The gang had just been transferred to Lyoko. Ulrich, Odd, William and Dartz moved ahead to combat the monsters protecting the tower while Riou, Yumi, Duke and Sharon stayed with Aelita to protect her from any attacking monsters.

"The tower is just ahead of you," a computerized voice said.

"We're getting there," Odd declared. He shot a laser arrow at a Flying Manta that was flying above him. The Manta shot a laser beam at Odd, which hit him in the arm, before being destroyed.

"Odd, you just lost twenty Life Points!"

"No problem, Einstein! I'll be fine," Another Flying Manta came down at Odd, but before it could hit him, Odd jumped on its back and scratched the hell out of the Xana insignia on its back, making the Manta explode.

"Buen trabajo, Odd!" Riou yelled.

"What did he say?"

"He said, 'Nice work, Odd,'" Dartz said. Just then, a Megatank rolled in front of both of them and began charging up its laser.

"Odd! Get out of the way!" the computerized voice yelled. Just then, the Tank fired its laser, depleting Odd's remaining Life Points. Odd appeared in one of the scanners. "Odd, are you all right?"

"I'm fine, Jeremy. But, I could have left Lyoko in a better way than _that._" Odd said.

"Well, you'd better get back upstairs. Come on." Odd went to the elevator and pressed in seven, one, three, zero, check, five and one, and the door opened. He then proceeded inside and pressed the up button. The elevator doors closed with a hiss, and the device carried Odd back up to the computer level.

"How are the others doing?" Odd asked when he finally arrived at the laboratory.

"Dartz took out the Megatank that beat you, and William took out a couple of Kankrelats that were blocking the way into the tower. Aelita has just stepped inside." Aelita floated to the top of the tower, walked to the center of the platform, and made an interface appear in front of her, she then proceeded to press her hand to the interface, which made her name appear.

AELITA

CODE:

LYOKO.

The data on the walls of the tower exited and made the tower go black.

"Tower deactivated," Aelita announced. Jeremy hit the "Enter" button on the keyboard.

"Return to the past, now." A white bubble filled the room, and spread throughout the entire area. Next thing the gang knew, it was Friday, school wasn't starting for another week, and they were sitting by their usual bench.

"That mission seemed almost too easy," William said.

"You can say that again," Ulrich agreed.

"I wonder what Xana will come up with next," Odd said.

"I don't know," Jeremy said. "It seems really strange. For the past few weeks, Xana hasn't done anything major. I wonder if he's just biding his time to execute a bigger plan…" He looked up at the sky and wondered at this thought. That seemed almost _exactly_ like the Xana that they knew.

"Let's hope that that hunch of yours is wrong," Aelita said.

"One can only hope, but I wouldn't count on it." They sat in silence for a moment until Odd spoke up.

"Hey, Dartz, have you heard from Doc?" he asked.

"The last time I talked to him, he was going to New Orleans to help repair a few things down there. Of course, that was about a month ago." Dartz answered.

"I miss Doc," Odd said. "He makes me laugh. And _that's_ saying something!"

"Don't worry, Odd. If I know Doc, and I do, he's probably trying to convince his father to let him come back and stay another year," Duke said.

"I imagine it must be a real pity to see New Orleans all torn up," Yumi said sadly.

"You have no idea!" a voice said from behind them. They all looked behind them to see their favorite New Orleans native beaming at them. "You really should have seen New Awlins in its prime, dawlin'."

"Doc?" Riou asked.

"You didn't really think that I was goin' to be kept from this place forevuh, did you?"

"We didn't know you were back in town," Lisa said, running up to him and smothering him in a hug. Garrett hugged back, rubbing Lisa's back. He released Lisa, and walked up to their friends in his usual distinguished manner.

"Well, well, well," he said, grinning. Dartz smiled back at him.

"How the hell are you?" Dartz asked.

"Dawtz, I am rolling," Garrett said, still grinning. "Duke."

"Hey, Doc," Duke said, shaking his hand.

"Riou,"

"Hola, Doc," Riou said, also shaking his hand. He finished greeting the rest of his friends.

"How did you get here so fast, Doc?" Lisa asked.

"Oh, uh, me and my fathuh wuh in the neighbuhood when a retuhn to the past was launched. When I felt the retuhn, I came back here as fast as I could. Oh, by the way, Duke. Yes, I did convince my fathuh to let me come back and stay fuh anothuh year. In fact, he's so satisfied with my wuhk, that he'll let me come back fuh the rest of mah school years if I want to."

"Will you?" Odd asked.

"Hell do you think?"

"Well, yes!"

"Exactly,"

"Hey, Doc!" another voice said.

"Who's that?" Ulrich asked.

"Just a friend of mine from America. His name's Chris." Garrett answered. The boy was running toward Doc.

"I just thought you'd be happy to know that I found our dorm room, and our stuff is already up there."

"Ladies and gentlemen, may I introduce one of my most esteemed friends, and one of my fellow Americans, Christophuh Mahtin." (A/N: It's Christopher Martin. He only pronounces it that way because he's a Southerner.)

"Oh. Are these the guys that you were telling me about?" Chris asked.

"The very same. This is Ulrich Stuhn, Odd Della- Robbia, Samantha Knights, Yumi Ishiyama, Aelita Stones, William Dunbah, Jeremy Belpois, Sharon Fieldedge, Lisa Blackthorn, Duke Avian, Dawtz Dragonblade, and Riou Thompson."

"Nice to meet you, Christopher," Jeremy said.

"Nice to meet you, too, Jeremy," The boy replied. "But, please, call me Chris. I hate Christopher."

"Okay. Sorry."

"No, that's fine. You didn't know."

"Well, I think maybe we'd better go to lunch sometime soon," Garrett said. Everybody just stood where they were for a second. Garrett had made a valid point. They were all hungry, and it was getting late.

"Why don't we just go now and get it over with?" Jeremy asked. They all went down to the cafeteria, making sure that Odd went last on account of the bottomless pit that he calls his stomach. After the group grabbed their food, they met at their usual lunch table.

"So, Chris, are you a student here?" Ulrich asked.

"Yeah. I enrolled here at the end of last week. My father had heard a great deal about this academy and told me that I ought to attend. When I heard that Doc's father was taking him back here, my mind was made up." Garrett leaned in and spoke to Dartz.

"So, what do you think?"

"About what?" Dartz asked.

"Ah was wonderin' if it wouldn't be a bad idea to let him into the loop."

"I don't know, Doc. We just met him."

"Well, I haven't. The kid knows how to keep a secret, and he's got talent." Dartz looked up in thought for a moment.

"We'll see," he said, finally. Odd was scarfing down all of his food. He took a handful of bananas and stuffed them into his mouth in a very skilled manner.

"Hey, Odd," Dartz started.

"What?" Odd asked.

"Chew with your mouth closed!"

"Hey! I'm starving!"

"Does he always eat like this?" Chris asked.

"Unfohtunately," Garrett replied.

"That's surprising. He doesn't look like he could eat you out of house and home, judging by how scrawny he is."

"Hey! I'm not scrawny. I'm svelte!" Odd whined.

"Yeah. Whatever," Ulrich said.

"Well, well, well, I see that once again you're all up to no good," a snide voice said. The gang turned to see Sissi standing near the table with her recently found army of flunkies. "What is it this time, huh?"

"If we're no good, then you must be downright diabolical, Pissy," Garrett said, taking a sip of the milk that he picked out. "Ahh. What do you think, Odd? Is this two puhcent that they're suhvin'?"

"Got me, Doc," Odd replied, playing along.

"It's SISSI!" the principal's daughter shouted.

"Oh, I apologize, Prissy, it appeahs that I was one consonant off. Please fuhgive me." Garrett said.

"You think you're bad, don't you?" Sissi asked.

"'Reckon I do."

"You know, Ulrich," Sissi put her arms around Ulrich's neck and snaked their way to his chest and caused Yumi to shoot a death glare at her. "I can't figure out why you hang out with these people. Especially him," she pointed at Garrett. "And HER!" she pointed at Yumi.

"Well, what do you know," Garrett said. "She actually broke the record by using a ten lettuh word in a sentence. Stop the presses." The whole table broke down in laughter, but Sissi and her goons were furious. "Ulrich, where ah yoh mannuhs? Shouldn't you provide the little miss with an answuh?"

"Yeah, you're right, Doc. Sorry," Ulrich said. He flung Sissi's arms off of him. "Because I have more fun things to do than hang out with you, Sissi. That's why."

"Like what?" Sissi asked.

"Oh, I don't know. Root canal; perhaps knife myself in the eye. You know, the simple pleasures." Sissi was just about to blow her top.

"And, if he gets bored with that, he could always… hell, I don't know. Shoot himself, maybe?" suggested Garrett.

"That does it! You'll get yours sooner or later, Murdoch. You'll get yours!" Sissi shouted. She turned on her heel and walked off, her goons in toe.

"Well, I don't know about you ladies and gentlemen, but I… I'm practically quakin' in mah boots… or I would be if I had any."

"You broke the record, Doc," Dartz said. "You made her even angrier!"

"I try," Garrett replied, taking another sip of milk.

"It's not fair! I haven't gotten the chance to tick her off since the end of last year!" Odd exclaimed.

"Odd, Odd. Whoevuh said I wouldn't share her?" Garrett asked. "You can tick her off next time."

"Who was that jerk?" Chris asked.

"Her name is Sissi. She's the principal's daughter," Yumi answered.

"And she uses her position to her advantage." Riou said.

"Huh, I can only imagine how big a pain it must be to have that as a daughter." Chris's comment also made the others start laughing.

"Hey, why don't we go hang out in Jeremy and Aelita's room?" Dartz asked.

"Not a bad idea," Aelita said.

"Yeah." Duke said. "It'd be better than sitting here all night." They all finished their food and began walking up to Jeremy and Aelita's room. On the way to his dorm room, Jeremy snaked his arm around Aelita's waist, making her gasp.

"Sorry! Does that make you uncomfortable, Aelita?" Jeremy asked.

"Not at all," Aelita smiled. Ulrich found himself snaking his arm around Yumi's waist also, which earned him a kiss on the cheek. They made it into the dorm room and stayed up talking for a while. After a while, everyone began to be bored with what they were talking about.

"Hey, Doc?" Chris asked.

"What is it?" Garrett replied.

"What would you say to a duel?" Chris pulled out a deck of cards that had a design of a vortex on the back.

"What would make you suggest that?"

"Well, it'd give us something better to do than worrying about tests and just not talking, don't you think?" Garrett nodded his head.

"Point well taken." He pulled out a deck of his own and began shuffling it. The rest of the gang  
looked puzzled.

"What's up, guys?" Odd asked.

"They're gonna play a game of Duel Monsters," Dartz answered. He chuckled. "I love that game."

"'Duel Monsters?'" Aelita asked.

"How do you play?" Ulrich asked.

"¡Ustedes nunca han oído hablar de monstruos del duelo?!" Riou asked.

"Translation?" Yumi asked, looking at Dartz.

"'You guys have never heard of Duel Monsters?'" Dartz translated.

"No, we haven't." Aelita said.

"My friends, you have no idea how deprived you are."

"Nor do you have any idea how much imagination went into this game," Garrett said.

"Tell you what. You guys just watch the game, and I'll try to explain the rules as it goes along."

"Deal," the others replied simultaneously.

"How much do you want to start out with, Doc?" Chris asked. Garrett thought about this for a moment.

"Eight thousand Life Points ought to do it," Garrett answered.

"That's a lot of Life Points," Jeremy said.

"They're not like the Life Points that we have on Lyoko, Mistuh Belpois."

"What's Lyoko? That another card game?" Chris asked. Everyone looked alarmed.

"Uh… actually, no. It's a video game. But, uh… after they finished testing it, it was never released," Jeremy said. "Don't ask me why, I don't know."

"Oh, okay,"

'Whoo. That was close.' Everyone thought that at the same time. Garrett turned to look at the gang, mouthing the word, "sorry," to them. Chris got out a playing mat from his pocket and laid it on the dorm floor and placed his Deck in the rectangular space labeled, "Deck Zone." Garrett followed suit.

"You wanna flip a coin or play Rock, Papuh, Scissuhs?" Garrett asked.

"Well, do you wanna go first, Doc?"

"No, not really."

"I guess I'll go first, then."

(Garrett LP: 8000)  
(Chris LP: 8000)

They each drew five cards from their decks. Chris drew an additional one from his deck.

"Players are required to draw a card from their deck at the start of their turn," Dartz explained. "If they reach down toward their deck and are unable to draw a card, the opponent automatically wins. Also, when the game begins, each player has the same amount of Life Points as their opponent. You can start out with two thousand, four thousand, or eight thousand Life Points. The Life Points aren't limited to those amounts, I just listed a few."

"I'll start by placing two cards facedown, and then I'll summon Maha Vailo in Attack Mode," Chris said. He placed two cards in the area labeled, "Spell and Trap Card Zone," and one in the area labeled, "Monster Zone." The monster that he played depicted a person in a meditation stance wearing a strange outfit.

(Maha Vailo: 4/Spellcaster/Light/1550/1400)

Everyone noticed the two numbers on the Maha Vailo card. 1550 and 1400 labeled ATK and DEF respectively.

"Each player can only play one monster per turn, unless it's under special circumstances."

"Your move, Doc," Garrett drew a card also.

"I'll staht by playing one card facedown, and then I'll play Mechanicalchasuh in Attack Mode." A robot with a wide assortment of weapons was depicted on the card that Garrett played.

(Mechanicalchaser: 4/Machine/Dark/1850/800)

"Each monster card has an attack number and a defense number, labeled ATK and DEF respectively. If a monster with higher attack power battles a monster with lower attack power, then the monster with the lower amount is destroyed and the difference between the two gets deducted from the Life Points of the weaker monster's controller," Riou explained. "The same thing would happen if a monster with lower attack power attacked a monster with higher attack power. However, this only happens when the opposing monster is in Attack Mode and you attack it. You can tell what mode a monster is in by checking the position of the card. If the card is placed vertically, the card is in Attack Mode. If it is placed horizontally, it is in Defense Mode. If a monster with higher attack power attacks a monster with lower defense power, the defense monster is destroyed, but the owner of the defense monster doesn't lose any Life Points, unless the card text says otherwise. When a facedown Defense Mode monster is attacked by a monster with lower attack power than the Defense Mode monster, then the monster with the lower attack power isn't destroyed, but the difference is still deducted from the Life Points of the attacking monster's owner. When a monster is destroyed, it is sent to the Graveyard."

"G- Graveyard?" Aelita asked timidly.

"In Duel Monsters, 'Graveyard' is just another way of saying 'discard pile,'" Dartz said.

"I like 'Graveyard' better," Odd said.

"I'm going to have my Mechanicalchasuh attack yoh Maha Vailo."

"Not so fast, Doc," Chris said.

"What?"

"I activate the Trap Card, Magic Cylinder. It'll negate the attack of your Mechanicalchaser and deliver damage to you equal to its Attack Points." Garrett didn't complain.

(Garret LP: 6150)

"How was he able to do that during Doc's turn?" Aelita asked.

"Most Trap Cards can be activated at any time, as long as they are facedown for at least one turn," Duke explained. "Spell Cards? They're another story."

"Well played, Chris," Garrett said. "I guess I'll just have to end my tuhn."

"My move," Chris said. "And I'll play the Field Spell Card, Yami, which boosts my Maha Vailo's Attack and Defense Points by 200 points."

(Maha Vailo: 4/Spellcaster/Light/1750/1600)

"Field Cards are a special type of Spell Card," Dartz said. "Instead of going to the Graveyard, like Normal Spell Cards, they remain on the field until another Field Card is played. I'll name some of the field types for you; Wasteland, Ocean, Darkness, Mountain, Meadow, and Forest. These six were the first types ever created. The card that Chris played, 'Yami,' is a Darkness field. There are many other types, and each one helps one monster and hinders another, but I'll explain that a bit later."

"It's still not strong enough to destroy Mechanicalchasuh." Garrett said.

"I'm not finished yet, Doc. Next, I'll play Mage Power. This increases Maha Vailo's Attack and Defense points by five hundred points for every Spell or Trap Card on my side of the field."

(Maha Vailo: 4/Spellcaster/Light/3250/3100)

"In addition, for each Equipment card that Maha Vailo has equipped to him, he gains five hundred additional Attack Points."

(Maha Vailo: 4/Spellcaster/Light/3750/3100)

"Now, I'll have Maha Vailo attack Mechanicalchaser."

"I have a Trap Card of my own, Chris, and I think I'll activate it right now."

"A Trap?" Chris asked.

"I activate the Trap Card, Dust Tornado. This will destroy yoh Mage Power and bring Maha's Attack Powuh back to its original value."

"Don't think so, Doc."

"Say what?"

"I have another facedown card, too. I activate the Spell Card, Magical Dimension. If I have a Spellcaster Type Monster on the field, I can sacrifice it and bring out a new monster in its place. So, I'll get rid of Maha in order to summon Magical Marionette."

(Magical Marionette: 5/Spellcaster/Dark/2000/1000)

"Oh. Almost forgot. Magical Dimension also allows me to destroy another monster. So, you'll have to say goodbye to Mechanicalchaser. After that, I'll have Magical Marionette attack your Life Points directly."

(Garrett LP: 3950)

"Whenever a player is attacked directly, that player loses Life Points equal to the Attack Points of the attacking monster," Riou said. Everyone nodded, showing their comprehension.

"I'll end my turn with one card facedown and leave it at that, see what you can do."

"I'll play the Spell Card, Polymerization to fuse my Cannon Soldier with my GigaTech Wolf to summon my Labyrinth Tank in Attack Mode."

"What just happened there, Dartz?" Yumi asked.

"It's a Fusion." Dartz answered. "This would be one of those 'special circumstances' that I mentioned earlier. Whenever a player has the right monsters in his hand or on his side of the field, and plays the Spell Card, Polymerization, he can send them to the Graveyard and summon a Fusion Monster that lists those monsters in its card text. A monster mentioned in that card text is what's called a Fusion Material Monster."

(Labyrinth Tank: 7/Machine/Dark/2400/2400)  
(Magical Marionette: 5/Spellcaster/Dark/2400/1000)

"How did that puppet get stronguh?"

"Whenever either one of us activates a Spell Card, I can place a Spell Counter on Magical Marionette. And it also gains 200 extra Attack Points for each Spell Counter attached to it."

"So, now our monstuhs are evenly matched. Oh, wait, that's not true. I'll activate the facedown card that I had. It's the Equip Spell Card, Machine Convuhsion Factory. This increases Labyrinth Tank's Attack and Defense by 300 points."

(Labyrinth Tank: 7/Machine/Dark/2700/2700)  
(Magical Marionette: 5/Spellcaster/Dark/2600/1000)

"Now, even though I powuhed up yoh puppet by two hundred moh Attack Points, my Tank still has one hundred moh attack points than he does, so I'll have Labyrinth Tank attack Magical Marionette."

"Not so fast, Doc. I'll activate Spell Shield Type 8. You know what that means."

"Sadly I do."

(Labyrinth Tank: 7/Machine/Dark/2400/2400)

(Garrett LP: 3750)

"Say goodbye to your Labyrinth Tank." Garrett sent his Labyrinth Tank to the Graveyard. "Now, I'll summon my Neo the Magic Swordsman…"

(Neo the Magic Swordsman: 4/Spellcaster/Light/1700/1000)

"…And then I'll have both Neo and Magical Marionette play a little Sleight of Hand with your Life Points."

(Garrett LP: 0)

"You've gotten bettuh, Chris." Chris scratched the back of his head.

"Maybe I should use a different deck. People may not have any desire to duel me if that keeps happening."

"No. You should keep using that deck. Imagine what wuh to happen if you wuh attacked by some goon."

"Good point." Aelita looked puzzled.

"Card players attack each other?" she asked.

"It's a long story," Dartz said. Yumi and the others watched as Garrett and Chris put away their cards.

"That was actually kind of interesting," Ulrich said. "Kind of reminds me of Chaotic."

"Except it's no where near as complicated." Duke said.

"Who makes this game?" Jeremy asked.

"It's made by a famous painter named Maximillion Pegasus. His family owns Industrial Illusions," Dartz said.

"Industrial Illusions," Lisa said. "Never heard of it."

"It's an even longer story."

"I don't care what company makes it!" Odd said. "I'm getting myself some of those cards!" With that, he ran back to his room and came back five minutes later, wallet in hand. "Anybody up for a shopping trip?"

"Now?" Chris asked. "It's six o'clock!"

"Wow, you can tell time. That's great," Odd grabbed his shoes and slipped them on, the laces already tied.

"I don't know about this, Odd," Jeremy said. "What if…" he began. He wanted to say, "What if XANA attacks?" but decided not to do it and run the risk of blowing their cover. "What if something new happens with the _project_?"

"We'll come racing back here! Let's go! Come on!" With that, he took off running toward the stairs.

"He's nevuh gonna let up on us." Garrett said. "It'll be a lot easiuh on all of us if we just go with it."

"All right. We'll go to the shopping center, but we have to be back here by eight," Jeremy said.  
Odd jumped ten feet into the air.

"Hooray!"

"I've needed to buy some new cards, myself," Dartz said. "Look and see if I can find any Neos support cards."

"Neos support cards?" William asked.

"Dartz's deck is made up of a breed of monsters known as the elemental heroes, also called the E- Heroes in Japan." Riou explained. "And his main monster is Elemental Hero Neos."

"Since Neos is the most powerful of the E- Heroes, many cards have been made to support him in battle." Duke said. "Dartz uses a lot of those cards. He could tell you more than we can." They proceeded down the stairs in order to exit the dorms and found Sissi waiting at the bottom of the stairs.

There's the first chapter of Cards of Lyoko. One review if you want the next chapter.


	2. A Sissi Encounter

"Hold on a sec," said Garrett

"Hold on a sec," Garrett said. "I'll fix huh."

"No, you hold on a sec," Chris said, leaving the gang puzzled. "Listen, I'd like to take a shot at her, if you guys don't mind. You guys can consider it my initiation ceremony. Besides, I've got this hunch that she wants to speak to me."

"No objections on my part." Odd said. "How about you guys?" The others shook their heads.

"Fly at it, Christophuh." Chris looked slightly ticked.

"Do NOT call me Christopher, Doc." Chris said angrily.

"I'm just tryin' to put you in the right state of mind foh it. You're welcome."

"Oh. Good idea." Chris then walked down the stairs casually and made to walk past Sissi,  
but…

"Hey, you!" Rigo called. "I'm Rigo Villalobos. I don't know if you've met me."

"'Ello, boy!" Chris exclaimed, imitating a British accent.

"I'll bet you sixty euros he does about as well as Doc did." Ulrich said to Odd.

"Sorry. I'm saving my money for those cards." He suddenly widened his eyes. "However…"

"What?" Yumi asked.

"We could do the ultimate wager, Punch Bet," Odd said.

"Oh, no." Duke said.

"I love Punch Bets." Riou said, giving Jeremy a light punch, causing the genius to wince in pain.

"You really need to work out, Einstein." Sam said.

"What's a Punch Bet?" Lisa asked.

"Whoever wins gets to punch the loser as hard as he can." Ulrich said. "BUT NO RINGS!" Odd punched the air in front of him.

"That sounds totally immature." Aelita said.

"You can be Punch Bet Commissioner." Ulrich bribed.

"Oh! I love it!" Aelita said, clapping.

"So, how about it, Ulrich?" Odd asked.

"You're on!" Ulrich agreed. They shook hands.

"Sissi Delmas wants to speak to you," Herve said.

"I'm guessing she's some kind of welcoming committee?" Chris asked. She walked up to Chris from behind Herve

"Ah, you must be Prissy or was it Pissy? I don't know… How's it going?" Chris smiled. Sissi walked up until she was standing about half a foot away from Chris. She had a look of malice in her face and she was just below his eye level even with her platform shoes.

"I'm told that you've hooked up with them," she said, gesturing over to Dartz and the gang.

"You're standing a little close. That's alright, I'm a personable guy myself, that's why I hooked up with them. They seem like nice people to me."

"Now, you listen to me…" she began, stepping closer (If that was at all possible.).

"Okay, now, that's a little too close."

"Here's the deal."

"I love deals!" Chris continued smiling.

"If you ever get in my way, both you and the rest of your little group-"

"Don't you say both when referring to two people? See, I only asked that because you're referring to my friends and me. I don't know what grade you got in math, but that's more than two."

"You and the rest of your friends are going to pay the price. You will be expelled, and/or arrested for whatever it is that you guys have been sneaking off for. Do I make myself clear?"

"I didn't know that she could talk like that," Yumi said. Chris was no longer smiling.

"You do. And, by all means, if you think we've broken a school rule or a law, report us." She began looking at him like he was insane.

"You're staring at me. Is that because you want to ask me out or because you can't think of anything to say? See, whenever my mind goes blank, I like to go with one of my favorite TV standbys, which is, of course, 'Go screw yourself. Do I need to include instructions with that?'"  
Chris was smiling, and Sissi looked as though she lived right up to her nickname among the gang. (And she did.) "That's quite a look,"

"Don't forget your place here, new kid."

"Well, I would actually consider my place to be somewhere on a higher level than you'll ever be, up there with those guys." Chris gestured up to the gang.

"You are out of your mind."

"Yes, and how nice it must be to remain so tightly locked inside yours."

"If you really think that you actually mean anything in my school-"

"Why yours?" he blinked and raised his eyebrows. "You have dibs?" Sissi looked even more ticked.

"This is the way you want to play it? Fine," Sissi nodded her head. Her whole gang just stared at Chris while he faked a puzzled look.

"Why does everybody in your group just stare at me?" He still pretended to be puzzled, and raised one eyebrow, as if trying to ponder how stupid and ticked Sissi and her gang looked. Ulrich hauled off and punched Odd in the cheek. Odd was shot back a few steps, clasping his cheek and looking as though he was trying to straighten his cheek out.

"Dude, your fist is monstrous!" Odd shouted.

"Well, what'd you expect? You've seen my-" Ulrich started.

"Okay!" Sharon interrupted. "Let's just get going, shall we?"

"She finally speaks!" Dartz said with a smirk.

"Yeah, I've had a really sore throat today. I'm feeling better now, though.

"That's good. I missed hearing that beautiful voice of yours." Sharon blushed. Duke feigned a large barf, making the rest of the gang laugh. Dartz walked past Sissi's gang and urged for Chris and the others to follow.

"Why is it that we're the only guys in the gang who can't find a girl here?" Riou asked Duke and William. Both shrugged.

"What were you guys doing on the stairs?" Chris asked.

"Oh, you know, just a Punch Bet," Ulrich said. They walked out the door of the dorm building and made their way to the shopping district of town. When they arrived, Odd immediately spotted a card shop on the west end.

"Score!" he yelled. "Let's check it out!" He dashed inside and began rummaging through all the packs in the store. The others barely made it inside when he put the packs he was buying on the counter. The cashier rang up his total.

"Okay, that'll be 42 euros," the cashier said. Odd dug into his wallet and pulled out a bill that read fifty francs. The cashier gave eight francs back.

"My first packs! And a starter deck!" Odd ran out the door to wait for the others. Chris picked up a new deck labeled, "Structure Deck."

"'Invincible Fortress,'" Chris read. He then picked up two packs from the shelf and went up to the counter to pay for them.

"Do you guys take dollars? All I have is American money."

"We can get it changed to euros for you."

"Please."

"You know," Dartz began. "I just thought of something."

"What?" Jeremy asked.

"Sissi said 'You will be expelled, and/or arrested for whatever it is that you guys have been sneaking off for,' but she knows very well what we've been sneaking off for."

"You've got a point." Aelita said as she looked over the cards lying on the shelves.

"Yeah." Yumi agreed. "I mean they've known about Lyoko for what, two years now?" Dartz nodded. "She must have a worse memory than we gave her credit for."

"One more thing to put on my 'Why I'll Never Date Sissi' list." Ulrich said. After everyone had picked out a Starter Deck and at least one pack of cards, they went outside to meet up with Odd.

"You should see the cards I've got, guys!" exclaimed Odd. He took all the cards he received and put them in a fan shape in front of his face.

"There's no way he'll win with those packs," said Chris.

"Why not?"

"Those packs were all from the first four sets," said Dartz.

"'Legend of the Blue Eyes White Dragon,' 'Metal Raiders,' 'Spell Ruler,' and 'Pharaoh's Servant," said Chris.

"Those packs are all anciano," Riou said.

"You can say that again," Sharon said.

"Those packs are all-"

"Don't be so literal, amigo," Chris said. Odd looked at Chris, looking a little broken.

"Well, what can I do improve on what I have?" he asked.

"Well, fortunately, I have the biggest collection in my hometown." Chris opened up his jacket, and revealed two giant zipper bags with two rows of cards stood up on their bottoms. Everyone looked at the collection awestruck, except for Dartz and Garrett. "Judging by the lack of reaction from you, you must have a larger collection, if not the same."

"Pretty close," Dartz said. "I was a pretty well known card collector in Germany."

"And I thought I had a lot of cards." Sharon said.

"Come on," Chris said. "Let's go back in." He led them back into the card shop, and spoke to the person at the counter. "Do you guys have a table somewhere that we can use?"

"You want to test out your new cards, huh?" the cashier asked. "Go down that hallway, and take the last door on the left."

"Thanks. Let's go." They did as the cashier told them. They went in, and found a whole room full of tables. Dartz made sure that the lights were bright enough, and the group sat down at the tables to open their packs and look at their new cards. "Okay, Odd, let's see what you've got." He pulled out a pile of cards, and pushed them toward Chris. "Based on what you've picked, what would you say you like?"

"Well, most of them look like dragons or some kind of knight," Odd said.

"So, warriors and dragons."

"Mostly dragons."

"Okay." He dumped out the contents of one of his bags. He began taking off the rubber bands on his cards and sorting them into separate piles. He began muttering "Dragons," under his breath, and kept his hand elevated an inch above the piles. "Ah, dragons," He picked up the second tallest stack in the group. "What you want to do, Odd, is pick plenty of monsters with an Attack Power of 1500 or more, such as Blackland Fire Dragon, a Defense of 2000 or more, such as Dragon Dwelling in the Cave, and, if you can, the occasional high-level monster. You want to make sure that most of the monsters you have are low-level, so that you can summon them without any trouble, and you have a better chance of drawing them when you need them. I normally play with a 55-card deck, with 28 Spell and Trap Cards, and 27 Monster Cards. Also, you want to make sure you add plenty of Spell Cards that will increase a Dragon Monster's strength, such as Dragon Treasure." Chris pushed a pile of Spell Cards in front of Odd. Odd took a look at the piles of cards that Chris had given him, and picked out the cards he liked. After a while, he pushed the cards back to Chris. "Did you pick out the ones you liked?"

"Yep."

"Well, let's see what you picked," Odd handed him the deck, and Chris looked it over. After a bit, he gave it an approving smile, and handed it back to Odd. "It'll do for now. You can add to it and take from it as you go along," he said. The others had finished getting their decks together, so they decided to head out.

"What's with all the Metal Raiders packs, Doc?" Yumi asked.

"Metal Raiders has many powuhful Machines, and I built mah deck with mostly Machine Monstuhs. I figured that a few moh wouldn't huht."

"What did you get, Aelita?" Jeremy asked.

"I found some interesting ones."

"Let's see 'em," Chris said, looking at the cards Aelita had in front of her. "Shadow Tamer, Lady Panther, Guardian Elma, and Amazoness Chain Master? Did you pick up a promo pack?" Aelita rummaged through her bag and pulled out a card wrapper. "You did. Oh, almost forgot." Chris pulled something out of his bag. "I got all of us side containers for whoever wants them." He pulled out a bunch of soft boxes with belt loops.

"Hey, I'll take one of those," said Odd.

"Why not?" Garrett asked, picking one up.

"I got a pink one for you, Aelita," Chris said, handing it to her. "I got Jeremy a blue one, Ulrich a green one, Yumi just a regular black one, and Odd a purple one."

"I'll take one, too." Sharon said, taking a box.

"I've actually got one already. Got it a couple days after the incident with my father." Dartz said, pulling his shirt up to show the case. Chris looked at Garrett questioningly, who just mouthed 'long story.'

"What about you, Chris?" Odd asked.

"I bought one long before I came to Kadic," said Chris, showing them the black cardholder that he had on his belt. Everybody put on their new cases and inserted their decks.

"Well, everyone, we'd better head back to Kadic," Jeremy said looking at his watch. "It's almost seven thirty."

"Let's go," Dartz said. They started heading back to Kadic. They walked until Odd stopped in front of an alleyway.

"Hey, guys?" he asked.

"What, Odd?" Ulrich asked.

"Well, do you guys think we could get back to Kadic quicker this way?" Everyone thought for a second.

"I don't think that's a very good idea, Odd," Lisa said worriedly.

"Well, what could happen?" Everyone looked at each other in thought.

"Alright, we'll go that way, but we have to hurry through," Duke sighed.

"Yeah!" Odd then hurried forward, gesturing for the others to follow him, which they did. They followed him for about five minutes, and Odd started to slow down. "Hey, guys I see a light."

"We must be close to the end, then," Jeremy said gratefully. Just then, without warning, someone jumped in front of Odd. The girls screamed, and the figure took hold of Odd.

That's the second chapter. You know the rules. Follow them.


	3. Duel With a Thug

Chapter 3: Duel With a Thug

"What do you kids think you're doing on my turf, huh?" the figure asked.

"Move it along, lard for brains," Dartz said menacingly, extending the claws on his right hand, "Unless you want me to make you uglier than you already are." The thug didn't seem fazed by this.

"Are those claws supposed to scare me?" the thug asked.

"Hey, idiot!" Chris said, catching the thug's attention. "If you're so tough, why don't you put our buddy down, and we'll have it out right here?" The thug seemed interested. "Actually, why don't we play a little game, eh?"

"What kind of game?"

"You familiar with Duel Monsters?"

"Why would I play that with a runt like you?"

"Because if you win, Dartz over here won't tear your butt ugly face off, and you get to beat me to a pulp," The thug shrugged.

"Alright, then," The thug came out of the darkness, revealing a tall man with an ugly face, which made him look like a catfish without whiskers, and a baldhead.

"Good." Chris pulled off his backpack and pulled out two devices, tossing one to the thug. Dartz retracted all of the claws he had extended, except for the middle one, which he flashed at the thug.

"Dartz, you bettuh have your cell ready," Garrett said. "Somehow, I get the feeling that this baboon isn't going to keep his wuhd."

"You think?" Dartz asked, pulling out his cell phone and dialing in 911. He placed his finger on the "Send" key, ready to press it if things got out of hand. Each player placed a device on his arm.

"Do you have your own deck, or do you need me to toss you a bone?" Chris asked.

"I'll be fine. Just flip a coin and let's get this started," the thug said.

"Call it." Chris took a silver dollar out of his pocket.

"Heads." Chris flipped the coin, caught it in his right hand, and placed it on the back of his left. He then revealed it.

"Fortune smiles," Chris slid his deck into a slot on the device. "Another day of wine and roses." He held up the coin. "Or in your case pizza and lard." He pressed a button on the device, and it changed shape. A flap extended out, and a second flap slid out of it, a red light then lit up, and four numbers lit up on his arm. The thug followed suit. "Life Points?"

"Why don't we play by Battle City rules?"

"Battle City?" Ulrich said.

"Yet an even longer story," Dartz said.

"Have you three ever participated in tournaments?" Lisa asked.

"I was in Battle City, but I got knocked out quickly. It was my first tournament."

"I haven't been in anything major." Garrett said. "Mostly local tournaments, a national qualification here and there. Chris hasn't been in any real tournaments yet, even though I keep trying to convince him to try it out."

(Chris LP: 4000)  
(Thug LP: 4000)

Chris and the thug each drew five cards.

"Since I called heads, I'll start things off," the thug said, drawing a card. "I'll place three cards facedown, and summon Opticlops in Attack Mode." He did so, and as he did, giant cards appeared in front of him, along with a large tan monster with one eye on the bridge of his nose, and a horn on its head.

(Opticlops: 4/Fiend/Dark/1800/1700)

Odd, Ulrich, Yumi, Aelita, Jeremy, William, Lisa, and Sam looked at the playing field in slack jawed incredulity. Ulrich was the first one to say anything.

"What the-? Monsters? Real monsters?!"

"Is it really that much stranger than anything we've faced?" Dartz asked.

"Besides, they're not real," Riou said.

"But… they're standing right in front of us." Yumi said.

"Those devices strapped to their ahms; they're called Duel Disks," Garrett said. "When a player places a cahd on the disk, the disk renduhs the images of the cahds in holographic 3D." Everyone nodded their heads, seeming to understand.

"All this for a card game?" William asked.

"Talk to Pegasus about that." Sharon said.

"I'll end my turn with that," the thug said. Chris drew a card.

"I'll activate the Spell Card, Polymerization. Then, I'll use it to fuse my Witch of the Black Forest with my Light HexSealed Fusion to summon the Musician King." A small void appeared on the field, and a shirtless man carrying a guitar and wearing his long blonde hair in a mullet emerged from it.

(Musician King: 5/Spellcaster/Light/1750/1500)

"I'll also place one card facedown, and a monster in Defense Mode, ending my turn."

"Why is he ending his turn?" asked Yumi.

"When playing by Battle City rules, Fusion monsters have to wait one turn before attacking." Duke answered.

"That's dumb." Odd said.

"Puhaps, but it is fair, when you think about it," Garrett said.

"How so?" Yumi asked.

"Well, since Fusion Summons count as special summons, the person who performs it can place another monstuh on the field in the same tuhn. If one of them can't attack, the opponent gets a break. And if there's one thing I know about Chris, he's no rulebreakuh."

"I'll have my Opticlops attack your facedown monster," said the thug. The Cyclops leapt forward and punched the facedown card on the field, revealing a pale skinned, redheaded witch carrying a staff with a crescent shaped crook.

(Magician of Faith: 1/Spellcaster/light/300/400)

"You attacked my Magician of Faith, and thus activated its special effect. When it's flipped up, I can take one Spell Card from my Graveyard and add it to my hand." Chris said. He did as the card instructed.

"Anything else you'd like to do, miss?" The thug grumbled.

"Make your move, shorty."

"Who you calling short, chrome dome?

"I am not bald."

"Tell that to the moon reflecting off you." Chris drew a card. "I'll play the Spell Card, Dark Magic Curtain. By paying half of my Life Points, I can take a monster from my deck and play it on the field without a sacrifice."

(Chris LP: 2000)

"More specifically, the Dark Magician." A blonde, pale skinned magician wearing a bizarre red and purple outfit and carrying a green staff appeared on the field.

(Dark Magician: 7/Spellcaster/Dark/2500/2100)

"I think I'll go ahead and have him attack your Opticlops." The magician fired a ball of dark energy from his staff and directed it at the Cyclops. The Cyclops doubled back, and was shattered. "Say goodbye to a chunk of your Life Points."

(Thug LP: 3300)

"Next, I think I'll activate the Quick Play Spell, Rush Recklessly, and power up my Musician King."

(Musician King: 5/Spellcaster/Light/2450/1500)

"Why don't you play a riff or two for Kojac over here?" The rocker violently flicked one guitar string, and then began playing a loud solo, which seemed to deafen Chris's opponent.

"Ow!" the thug shouted.

"As much as your ears hurt, your Life Points are gonna hurt a lot worse."

"Nice try, but one of the facedown cards I played was Nutrient Z. This gives me 4000 Life Points right before the actual damage is dealt to me."

"Not today, it doesn't.

"Huh?"

"You remember _my_ facedown?" Chris's facedown turned upwards, revealing the image of a bear trap being disabled. "It's called Trap Jammer. This allows me to destroy and negate sorry, make Nutrient Z useless at the cost of one card in my hand." Chris discarded one card to the Graveyard. "Now, about those Life Points…" the thug growled angrily.

(Thug LP: 750)

"Take your turn, baldy." The thug drew a card, and smirked.

"I'll play the Magic Card, Raigeki."

"Oh, God," said Chris.

"This destroys all monsters on your side of the field." A lightning bolt came down, shocking the Dark Magician and Musician King to death. The two monsters shattered, leaving Chris wide open. "Now, you've got nowhere to hide!"

"'Least I don't need a rare Spell Card to destroy you."

"I don't see you destroying me any time soon, not with your playing field blank."

"But my Life Points are higher. And I'm about to get more of them, because I'm activating another Quick Play Spell: Poison of the Old Man." An old man carrying two vials appeared on the field in between the two players.

"What's going on, here?"

"The Poison of the Old Man has two effects, but instead of being able to use both effects, the player has to choose one of them."

"And those would be?"

"You see those vials he's holding? Each one has a different effect. The purple one increases a person's Life Points by 800, and the green one decreases a player's Life Points by 500. Since I'm behind you in monsters, I'm going to have him splash me with the purple one." He turned to  
the old man. "Douse me." The old man faced Chris, and splashed him with the purple vial.

(Chris LP: 2800)

The thug didn't look fazed.

"I'll summon Familiar Possessed- Eria in Attack Mode." He said. A beautiful girl with long blue hair appeared. A spirit in the shape of a large, blue lizard was protecting her.

(Familiar Possessed- Eria: 4/Spellcaster/Water/1850/1700)

"Then, I'll play the field Spell, Yami." The disk projected darkness all around them. "This raises Eria's Attack and Defense by 200 points."

(Familiar Possessed- Eria: 4/Spellcaster/Water/2050/1700)

"Then, I'll reveal one of my facedown cards: Reinforcements. This temporarily increases Eria's Attack Power by 500 points."

(Familiar Possessed- Eria: 4/Spellcaster/Water/2550/1200)

"Now, I'll have Eria attack you directly!" The lizard leapt forward and scratched Chris across the chest. Chris groaned in pain. While the duel was going on, two patrol cars were headed in the direction of the Lyoko Gang. Dartz had called them in; telling them that they had the thug detained, but also that they didn't know how long they could keep him.

"We're coming up on St. Jacques Avenue." a police officer in one of the passenger seats said. "Turn left here. After this, it should only be another block."

(Chris LP: 300)  
(Thug LP: 750)

"Now Eria's attack returns to 2050." The thug said.

(Familiar Possessed- Eria: 4/Spellcaster/Water/2050/1700)

"Okay, that was a nice comeback, but that was your last move," Chris said.

"How do you figure that?"

"I'll let my next few cards tell you." He drew a card. "First, I'll summon the Skilled Dark Magician in Attack Mode." A magician with an all black robe and three orbs on it appeared on the field.

(Skilled Dark Magician: 4/Spellcaster/Dark/1900/1700)

"And your field spell raises his attack and defense by 200 points." Chris continued.

(Skilled Dark Magician: 4/Spellcaster/Dark/2100/1900)

"Then, I'll play the Spell Card, Pot of Greed, which allows me to draw two cards from my deck."  
He did so, and as he did, one of the orbs on the magician's robe started to glow.

"What just happened?" the thug asked.

"I'll get to that, but first, I'll play another Poison of the Old Man, but this time, he's going to douse you with the green stuff." The old man appeared once again on the field, and splashed the thug with the green potion, causing him to groan in pain.

(Thug LP: 250)

"Their scores are about even," Aelita said. Everyone nodded. Another orb on the magician's robe glowed.

"Then, I'll play Graceful Charity, allowing me to draw three cards, and then discard two of them." As he did this, the third and final orb on the magician's robe started glowing. "I can tell that you noticed my Skilled Dark Magician's robe. You see, every time I play a Spell Card, one of the magic orbs on his robe begins to glow. And, when all three orbs are glowing, I can send him to the graveyard, and summon one Dark Magician from my Graveyard, hand or deck. Since you basically killed my Dark Magician last turn, I think I'll let him exact revenge on you."  
The Skilled Dark Magician disappeared to be replaced by a rather infuriated Dark Magician.

(Dark Magician: 7/Spellcaster/Dark/2700/2300)

"Destroy that spirit of his." The magician hurled a ball of dark energy at Eria, destroying her, and depleting the thug's remaining life points.

(Thug LP: 0)

Just then, the patrol cars drove up behind the thug, and the police stepped out of their vehicles, pointing their guns at the thug.

"On your stomach! Arms spread!" one of the officers said. The thug moved to run when Garrett pulled out one of his air pistols.

"I'd much appreciate it if you'd do as they say." He said. "'Way I see it, there's no need foh a bloodbath." The thug scowled, and did as the policemen said. As he did so, one of them came up to him, and cuffed his hands behind his back. He then began reading him his rights.

"Are you kids alright?" the other officer asked.

"We're fine, officuh."

"We're going to need you kids to come and make a statement. Are you up to it?" The group looked at each other, and then nodded.

"We'll come and give you a statement. Think you could cover for us? We kind of needed to be back at Kadic Academy half an hour ago." Lisa said.

"I'll have another officer call it in. If you'll follow us, we'll take you back to HQ."

"You might have to make two trips," William said.

"Well, at least now we have a good reason for being late." Dartz said. After the group finished making their statement, the policemen drove them back to Kadic Academy. Outside, Mr. Delmas was waiting to greet them.

"Ah, Mr. Dragonblade, Mr. Murdoch. I just got word from the police. You are all unharmed, I hope?" Mr. Delmas asked.

"We're fine, Mr. Delmas. You don't need to worry."

"Good. Well, since you all missed dinner, Jim will accompany you all to the cafeteria. The food should still be warm. You can eat, and then you may go to bed."

"Thanks, sir," Chris said, yawning. "But, I'm a little tired. What I don't eat tonight, I'll make up for tomorrow. May I be excused?"

"You may. Good night, Martin."

"'Night, sir." Chris turned and headed toward the dorms building.

"Any others who would like to retire?" The others shook their heads. "Very well, then. Jim will escort you to the cafeteria." Jim came five minutes later, and led them to the cafeteria. En route, Garrett struck up conversation with the gang.

"Dawtz, do you remembuh when I asked you about letting Chris into the loop?"

"Yeah. I do," Dartz said as he snapped out of his memories.

"So, what do you think now?"

"Well, we don't quite know him. He does seem useful. He also seems to be very unique."

"So are we, and I know him to be an honest kid, and a trustwuthy one. And he saved us tonight. With a cahd game, Dartz. That's gotta be enough." Dartz nodded.

"Tomorrow, we'll initiate him," Jeremy said. But added in an undertone, "I hope you know what you're doing." After they ate, Jim escorted them back to their rooms.

Sorry these things are taking so long. Now that I'm on winter break I should be able to get a few more updates in.


	4. Chris on Lyoko

Chapter 4: Chris on Lyoko

The gang woke up the next morning, and made their way to Chris's dorm room. Dartz nodded to everyone, and knocked on the door, which Chris promptly answered.

"Hey, everybody. What's up?" Chris said.

"We need to talk." Garrett said. Chris looked slightly cautious.

"What about?"

"Well…" Jeremy started. "We want to let you in on something else that we do, and we hope that you'll help us with it. But, rather than tell you, I think that it would be better to just show you." Chris hesitated.

"This is something that we would only show to someone we trust, Chris." Garrett said. Chris shrugged.

"Okay. Lead the way, boss." Chris said. Dartz lead the way out of the grounds. They decided to walk to the factory, since classes still didn't start for another week. Odd began singing as they neared the manhole.

"If you're blue and you don't know where to go to, why don't you go where fashion sits? Puttin' on the-" Odd sang.

"Shut up, Odd." Ulrich said.

"Okay." They walked for about another five minutes and were nearing the halfway mark in the sewer when Odd began singing again. "It's the eye of the tiger, it's the cream of the fight. Rising up to the challenge of our rival. And the last known survivor stalks his prey in the night. And he's watching us all in the eye"

"Stop singing, Odd."

"Okay." Five minutes later, as they climbed up the other manhole, which took them to  
the bridge leading to the factory, Odd began singing again. "Can you see me standing here? I got my back against the record machine. I ain't the worst that you've seen. Can't you see what I"

"Odd, I am going to punch you again, and this time, I will kill you."

"Okay! Somebody doesn't like the classics!"

"Actually, I do, I just don't like _you_ singing them."

"Is he always like that?" Chris asked Sharon.

"Unfortunately, yes." Sharon said. When they all got into the elevator, Odd was singing once again.

"In touch with the ground, I'm on the hunt, I'm after you. Smell like I sound, I'm lost in a crowd, and I'm hungry like the-"

"Okay, you're headed the right way for a breakup," Sam threatened.

"Sorry."

"He's right about one thing, though," Jeremy said. Everyone looked at him. "He does smell like he sounds." Everyone cracked up laughing, with the exception of Odd. "Well, his feet do, at least." Jeremy punched in the code for the elevator, and down it went. It began to lower until they reached the control room. Jeremy opened the keypad, but did not enter the code to open the door. "Okay, Chris. Whether we show you the next room depends on how you answer  
these questions. Can you keep a secret?"

"Yes," answered Chris.

"Do you promise not to tell anyone outside of our group about this  
location?"

"So help me God."

"Alright then…" He entered the code and the door opened and oddly enough, Chris didn't seem too fazed. He merely looked the room up and down.

"Awful quiet, Chris," Garrett said.

"Just admiring the genius, Doc," Chris said, still looking around the room.

"Christopher Martin, prepare for your world to be rocked," Ulrich said.

"In a little while, we'll be ready to show you what our group is all about," Jeremy said. "In the meantime, why don't you take a look at this?" He tossed Chris a folder, which the latter immediately began to read. He left the room with the gang to leave Chris to read. They went down to the scanner room to speak. "Okay, I know this is a dead subject already, but Garrett, are you sure that Chris can be trusted?" Garrett grinned.

"I didn't see him tell anybody about Dartz's claws," he replied. Dartz looked at his knuckles. It didn't even look like there were three steel claws housed within them, for there wasn't a single mark on his fists.

"You know, Dartz," said Sharon, "You've never told us. Does it hurt when they come out?" Dartz looked at his knuckles again.

"A little." Dartz said. "After the first few times I got used to it." He extended his claws again.

"Back to Chris," said Garrett. "Bottom line: He has nevuh revealed any of my secrets, few though they may be, and I deem him puhfectly trustwuthy."

"Well doesn't everyone already know about Dartz's claws though?" William asked.

"Not really." Dartz said. "Besides Sissi, her gang, and you guys, no one knows."

"He's probably finished reading the folder I gave him by now. Let's go check," Jeremy said. They all filed back into the room to find Chris still reading the file. "Do you pretty much understand it now?" Chris looked somewhat frustrated, and panicked.

"Uh, yeah." Chris said. "I can see what your general objective is, but I think this might be a bit over my head. For one thing, I'm fairly certain that if these documents are not executed precisely, France will be at war with _Russia_. No offense to you guys, but that's a kitten at war with a mountain lion."  
Chris gave Jeremy a somewhat disapproving look before Jeremy snatched the document back from him.

"Will you give me that? Do you have any idea how old these documents are?" He placed the one-inch thick folder, which was part of a larger folder, into a shredder, which promptly sucked in the folder. Everyone stared at the shredder for a second, and then looked at Jeremy. "New Shredder. This thing will chew through a bicycle in fifteen seconds." Dartz and Riou nodded. "Like I said, why don't we just show you? Follow me." He led Chris over to the holomap and sat down in the chair. He flicked a few buttons, making a map of Lyoko appear in front of the terminal.

"Whoa… Jeremy… What is all of this?"

"Christopher Martin… This is Lyoko." Chris just stood awestruck for a moment. The gang went into a fully detailed explanation to Chris about what Lyoko was and about Xana's plan to take over or destroy the world, whichever came first. They told him about the scanners, and how they could be sent to Lyoko via these scanners. They told him about the towers on Lyoko, how Xana used them to create havoc in the real world by activating them, and how Aelita and Dartz are the only ones who can deactivate them. They told him about their return to the past program, how they use it to undo the damage that Xana has done, and how they are the only ones who remember the events afterwards.

"So, basically, you guys are telling me that a computer program that's been infected by some kind of virus is trying to end the world's existence."

"Good summary, Chris," Riou said.

"Well, you guys are confiding a lot into me."

"Because we feel we can trust you," Duke said. Chris thought for a second.

"I've never been on a team like this before. And… I _have_ always dreamed about saving the world. And I don't really care if anyone knows that I have."

"Well, now you'll actually have that chance," Garrett said. "Are you in?" Chris looked at Garrett, and slowly nodded his head.

"Absolutely."

"Good," Sharon said.

"Follow us," Lisa said. She led the way back to the elevator, and waited for everyone to file in. After everyone entered, the elevator went down. It stopped in front of the scanner room, and the door opened to reveal the three scanners.

"Okay, Chris. Lisa and I are going to go up to the terminal. When I do, one of the scanners will open up for you. When it does, I want you to step inside. The door will automatically close, and air will start to rush through it. However, before I go back to the terminal, I want you to make a couple of decisions. Do you want to go to Lyoko now, or do you want me to make you a profile, and go later?"

"I'll go now." Chris said.

"Alright. And, would you like to go alone this time, or would you like to take someone with you?" Chris thought about it for a moment.

"I want to go by myself this time. You can have the others come and back me up if I have any trouble."

"Okay. Up we go." Jeremy and Lisa got back in the elevator and went up to the terminal while Chris made his way to the center of the scanner room.

"Okay, enter the scanner, Chris," Jeremy said over the intercom. One of the scanners opened in front of him. He promptly stepped into it and turned around while the doors shut around him.

"Okay," said Jeremy. "Transfer Chris." Air started to rush over Chris in the scanner. "Scanner Chris." The blowing began to intensify. "Virtualization." Chris disappeared from the real world, and reappeared above the ground of the Mountain Region of Lyoko. After he was assembled, he fell to the ground.

"You are currently in the Mountain Region, Chris." Lisa said.

"So… this is Lyoko?"

"It is."

"It's not quite as scary as I would have imagined." He then looked down at his form. He had an all black formfitting outfit, and a black trench coat with brown buckles on the cuffs. He found a watch on his left arm. He also found a sword hilt in one of the pockets of his coat. There was a button on it, which he pressed, causing a blade to extend from it. "Well… I like this."

"How do you look?" Jeremy asked.

"Fantastic." Chris said.

"Okay, Mr. Bond, time for you to come back." Just then, a laser was fired that narrowly missed Chris. He turned and saw three Kankrelats.

"That return is going to have to wait, Jeremy. I've got company." Chris drew the hilt out of his pocket and extended the sword. He ran for the Kankrelats. One of them fired a shot at him, and he dodged it easily. He slashed at one, but it still stood. "Jeremy, is there a specific way to kill these things?"

"Aim for the eye shaped insignia." Chris sighed.

"I wish there was some way I could make this sword-" The blade of the sword suddenly became narrower and longer. "Lighter." He then ran toward the Kankrelat that he attacked and stabbed it through the eye, causing it to explode. "Variable steel," said Chris. "Sweet." He then began to ponder about attacking the other Kankrelat. He began to make stabs and slashes at it. He slashed five times before he landed a blow on the insignia. The Kankrelat exploded and Chris wiped his brow.

"I probably would have been better off with a battle axe." Just then, the metal of his sword changed into a long pole with two large blades at the end, one on either side of the weapon. "Whoa. This is intense." When he finished examining his weapon, three Krabes approached him, firing lasers at him. "Uh oh."

"I see it too, Chris. Try to hold them off. I'm sending you backup. Odd, Dartz, get into the scanners. I'm sending you in." Dartz and Odd immediately jumped into the scanners. "Transfer Odd." Odd's scanner began to hum rather loudly. "Transfer Dartz." Dartz's scanner followed suit. "Scanner Odd." Air began to rush over Odd. "Scanner Dartz." Dartz let his claws fly out of his knuckles. "Virtualization." Odd and Dartz appeared on Lyoko and dropped to the ground, gracefully. They saw Chris having it out with the Krabes. The leftover Kankrelat was still firing shots at him.

"Oh, God. I'm glad you guys made it," said Chris, finishing a Krabe off.

"Nice threads, Martin," said Odd, firing a shot at the lone Kankrelat, and finishing it off.

"Thanks. Mind telling me how you guys landed so easily?"

"You get used to it after a while," Dartz said as he lunged at one of the Krabes. Odd noticed a change in Dartz's costume. Instead of the black cloak and leather armor, he had thick, black fur that covered his whole body. He had a bow and quiver of arrows on his back and metal pauldrons, bracers, and gauntlets protected his fur-covered arms. Three claws extended from each of his hands, much like his claws on earth. He used these to stab the Krabe in the Xana symbol on its shell. The Krabe exploded as Dartz jumped off its back and landed in front of Chris and Odd.

"How the heck do you look like that?" Odd asked.

"It's a new Lyoko form I built up. I decided to give it a test run."

"Uh guys, we have more company." Chris said. Three more Krabes appeared and fell to the ground.

"Did you learn anything about your form?" Odd asked.

"Well, nothing special except for this… thing of mine."

"Thing?" Dartz asked.

"Well, it seems that if I say the name of a particular weapon or just think of the name, it changes to that weapon's shape."

"Well, try something else," Odd said. Chris looked at the weapon.

"Uh… Thompson." The axe changed shape, and became a Thompson machine gun made of steel. He then jumped toward one Krabe and began shooting at it with it, always aiming for the eye. He succeeded and the Krabe exploded. "I think I'll keep it."

"That's what Yumi said about her fans."

"Fans?"

"Explanations later." Dartz said. He jumped on a Krabe and stabbed it with his claws, causing it to explode. The three warriors finished fighting their enemies and stood triumphant.

"This reminds me of a video game I play."

"Okay. They're gone. You can go ahead and bring us back, Jeremy."

"Good. Materialization: Chris." Chris disappeared from the scene.

"Materialization: Dartz." Dartz disappeared shortly after.

"Materialization: Odd." Odd disappeared from the landscape on Lyoko and reappeared in the scanner. After the smoke cleared, the three stepped out of their respective scanners.

"Welcome to the team, Chris," Aelita said. All three of them got up, and Odd was the first to speak.

"I'll be right back. Just sit tight, okay?" He ran into the elevator and went up to the laboratory.

"Oh, geez," Yumi said, rolling her eyes. Odd returned to the room holding a fake saber behind his back.

"Chris… on your knees."

"Odd, do we have to do this every time we get a new teammate?" Dartz asked.

"It's a grand event, so the answer would be yes. On. Your. Knees." Chris did as he was told, and kneeled on the floor in front of Odd. "Christopher Martin, by the power vested in me by the Lyoko Warriors, I hereby dub thee…" He tapped each of Chris's shoulders with the saber. "A Lyoko Warrior." Chris raised his head. "Welcome to the team."

"Thank you… my lord?"

"Rise, warrior." Jeremy offered a hand to Chris, which he promptly accepted.

This is probably the quickest I've ever updated a story. I feel so proud of myself. But I still want my review.


	5. Yuri Moteau

Chapter 5: Yuri Moteau

Odd was leading the way back to the academy. He was quite a ways ahead of them. "Odd, will you slow down? We're not in _that_ big a hurry," Duke said.

"I know, but I'm starving!" Odd said

"Odd, look out!" Sam shouted. Odd looked forward, and a couple feet in front of him stood a stranger with his back turned to them. By the time Odd noticed this, however, it was too late.

"Excuse me!" The stranger turned around, and Odd ran right into him. Odd was knocked  
backwards, but the stranger remained standing. "Sorry!"

"Not to worry," the stranger said. He had a deep, godlike voice. Odd was about to get up when he noticed something on the ground next to him.

"Oh! My cards!" There was a clutter of cards on the ground with a design on the back of each one, which looked like a vortex. Odd then turned around to pick them up.

"You're a duelist."

"Well, sort of." Odd smiled. "I'm just starting to learn how to play the game."

"Let me help you." He bent down and started helping Odd pick up his cards.

"Thanks for the help."

"Odd, you are such a klutz." Dartz said as the rest of the gang caught up.

"You've assembled quite a powerful deck," the stranger said, handing Odd the cards. Odd took them with a smile.

"Well, thank you. Oh, and I'm sorry about bumping into you."

"Like I said, no harm done." The stranger chuckled. It was then that everyone actually got a good look at the stranger. He had long, red, spiky hair with blond bangs; he was wearing a black shirt, and a pyramid shaped pendant around his neck.

"Alright. You helped me, now it's my turn to help you."

"Help me?"

"Yeah. Just tell me what I can do to return the favor." The stranger seemed to consider this for a moment.

"Well…"

"Yes?" The stranger thought for a couple more seconds.

"Well, now that you mention it, there is something I need."

"What is it?" Lisa asked.

"I'm looking for a place called…" he took out a sheet of paper. "Kuhdeek Academy?"

"You mean Kadic Academy?" Yumi asked.

"Yes. Do you know where it is?"

"What a coincidence! We're students there!" Aelita said.

"Huh. Well, I needed to speak with the headmaster on a matter of great importance."

"Say no more! Follow us!" Odd said. They all led the way to the factory. The stranger followed them at an easy pace.

"We didn't catch your name," Ulrich said.

"Oh. I'm…" he thought for a moment. "I'm Yuri."

"Pleasure to meet you, Yuri. I'm Odd."

"Yumi."

"Garrett. You can call me Doc."

"Ulrich."

"Aelita."

"The name's Sam."

"Chris."

"Dartz."

"Duke."

"Jeremy."

"Lisa's the name."

"I'm Sharon."

"Yo soy Riou."

"Well, it's a pleasure to meet each of you."

"Oh, one more thing, Yuri," Jeremy said.

"What is it?"

"See, thing is… we're kinda… not supposed to be off campus right now, so…"

"I understand." Yuri chuckled. "My lips are sealed,"

"Okay. We're here." Dartz said. Yuri looked up at the academy and surveyed it.

"This is Kadic Academy?"

"Yep," Garrett said. "Kadic Academy, and all its splendor."

"Huh…"

"¿Quisieras que te demostráramos a la oficina del principal?" Riou asked.

"What did he say?"

"He asked if you wanted us to show you to the principal's office."

"Please." They led Yuri to the principal's office and spoke with the woman at the  
front desk.

"Can I help you?" Ms. Webber asked. Yuri answered her.

"I had an appointment with the principal."

"Your name?"

"Tell him that Yuri Moteau is here to see him."

"One second." She punched a button on her desk. "Mr. Delmas?"

"Yes?" The principal's voice came over a speaker.

"There is a man here to see you. His name is Yuri Moteau."

"Send him in."

"Yes, sir." The woman gestured toward the door. Yuri was about to walk in when he turned around.

"Odd?" he said. "Come here for one second."

"What is it, Yuri?" Odd asked.

"You look like the kind of person who deeply respects his cards."

"Yeah… I guess so." Yuri held out a card.

"Why don't you take this card? I just have this feeling that it belongs with you." Odd looked at the card. He'd never seen anything like it.

"I'll take it, Yuri. And don't you worry. I'll treat it with the utmost respect." Yuri smiled and flashed Odd a thumbs up before walking into the principal's office and closing the door.

"What did you guys think of that guy?" Odd asked as the gang walked down to the cafeteria for lunch.

"He seemed kind of… cool," Ulrich said.

"I wonder what it was that he needed to speak to the principal about?" Sharon said.

"No telling," Riou said.

"Something tells me we'll find out real soon," Duke said.

"You guys worry too much!" Odd said. "Come on! I'm starving!" He ran into the cafeteria, causing Sissi, who just happened to be entering at the same time, to fall into a mud puddle.

"He's fast when he's hungry," Garrett said.

"Yeah," Ulrich said. "Too bad he can't be that fast in gym." They walked up to the cafeteria and looked at Sissi, who was still sitting in the mud.

"That's a nice look for you, Delmas." Dartz said. "I think you should keep it." They all finished grabbing their food and headed to their seats at a table by the window. Jeremy and Garrett, having lost their appetites at the hands of Odd's abyss like stomach, gave him their trays.

"So, when can I go with you guys to Lyoko again?" Chris asked.

"Well, first, Xana has to attack us," Jeremy said. "Failing that, maybe there'll come a time when you and the others need training."

"Though we usually do that in the gym, they're still trying to rebuild it after Xana destroyed it with a wrecking ball last month." Dartz said.

"Well, that time is definitely coming for me," Chris said. "I'm still trying to figure out how that weapon of mine works."

"Run me through what happened when you used it."

"Well, it first came in the form of this really wide and long sword. It looked kind of like Cloud's Buster Sword on Final Fantasy VII. Then, after I attacked the first one of those… what were they called? Kank… something?"

"Kankrelats." Aelita said.

"Kankrelats. After I started attacking the first of them, I remember getting weak from holding the sword. It was too heavy for me. As if I had wished for it, it just got longer, thinner, and lighter. After that, I defeated another one, and it turned into a battle-axe. When Odd and Dartz showed up, I thought of mowing them down with a Tommy, and then it turned into a Thompson machine gun. After that, I just shot at the nearest Krabe. Then, you devirtualized us."

"So, the weapon works with desire," Jeremy said. "You wanted something lighter, it turned into a katana. You wanted something more fearsome, and it turned into a battle-axe. You wanted something ranged, it gave you a Thompson."

"I really like it. I just need to figure out how to control what it turns into."

"Riou can help you with that." Duke said. Riou nodded. The principal walked into the cafeteria.

"Hello, everyone. I have an important announcement to make." Everyone in the cafeteria quieted down and let the principal make his speech. "This year, we will have a new after class course which will be entirely optional. However, should you choose to participate, you will get extra  
college credit." Everybody in the cafeteria turned to Mr. Delmas. "But, more on that later. Right now, I'd like you all to give a nice, warm Kadic Academy welcome to our new teacher, Mr. Yuri Moteau!" Everyone in the cafeteria clapped as the spiky haired stranger gave them all a smile.

"That's the guy we met this morning!" Odd exclaimed with his mouth full.

"Odd, swallow." Lisa said. As the clapping wound down, Yuri began to address the students.

"Thank you all for your kind welcome." Yuri said. I have had the pleasure of meeting quite a few of you, and something tells me that I'm going to like it here very much. As Mr. Delmas said, I will be teaching an optional after class course. Now, when I say, 'course,' I don't want anyone to start thinking of anything like math or science or anything like that. What I have in mind entails some of that, but it's nothing that any of you wouldn't be able to handle. It'll be fun. I'm sorry about those of you who are wondering about this, but I will only reveal more to those who choose to take my course. I will say this much: It is one of the most well known recreational activities and ways of life in my hometown. And I believe that those of you who choose to take my course will enjoy it as much as I enjoyed it and still do to this day. I will be accepting signups for the next two weeks from 9 AM to 5 PM." Everyone in the cafeteria went back to what they were doing.

"That is all we had to say," said Mr. Delmas. "Please enjoy the rest of your meal."

"How did Yuri get the whole cafeteria to listen to him?" Ulrich asked.

"It's got to be that deep voice," Yumi said.

"What do you make of that?" Garrett asked.

"He'd be an interesting teacher," Dartz said. "He seems kind of familiar." Just as they started eating, they heard a scream come from the outer hallway.

"What the heck was that?" Odd asked. They saw Christophe M'Bala come running into the cafeteria.

"What's his deal?" Sam asked. Just then, the door that M'Bala came through was busted down, and standing in the archway was a large, black dragon with red eyes. It threw its head back, and opened its mouth. A fireball began to form in its mouth.

"Oh, no!" Yuri shouted. He had just noticed the dragon. "Get out of the way!" The dragon made ready to release the fireball at Milly and Tamiya, but before it had the chance, Yuri jumped in front of it, and pushed them out of the way. "Come on! We've got to get out of here!" he exclaimed. He took both girls by the hands, and ran out of the cafeteria. "Go get help! Go!" Milly and Tamiya did as they were told, and ran toward the main office building. The gang ducked under the table.

"What's going on?!" Odd asked. "What is that thing?!"

"It's the Red Eyes Black Dragon!" Chris said. "It's a Duel Monster Card!" The laptop in Jeremy's computer case began beeping.

"It's XANA!" Jeremy said.

"He didn't give us much warning!" Riou said.

"We need to get to the factory!" Lisa shouted.

"You'll need a distraction!" Odd said. "I'll go to the kitchen and grab some stuff to throw at it! Stay right here!"

"No, Odd." Garrett said. "That's a duel monster. I'll stay here and take care of it." He got up and started taunting the dragon. "Hey! Lizard face! Over here!" The dragon turned to Garrett and made ready to fire a fireball at him. Garrett activated his duel disk. As the dragon fired at Garrett, he pulled a card from his deck and placed it on the duel disk. "Come forth, Labyrinth Tank!" Labyrinth Tank appeared between Garrett and the dragon, blocking the fireball.

"What's he doing?" Ulrich asked.

"Dueling the dragon." Dartz said. "He's buying us some time. Let's go."

"I stopped for beignets!" Odd exclaimed.

"Beignets, huh?" Ulrich asked. "You get a receipt?"

"Yeah, I got a receipt! I got YOU one, TOO!" Odd answered menacingly.

"You're the best, Odd!"

"BOYS!" Yumi shouted.

"WHAT?!" they asked, simultaneously. They looked at the dragon. It continued to shoot the Tank, which got weaker and weaker with each hit. The dragon's eyes began to glow a brighter red.

"Oh, not good!" Riou said. "It's becoming enraged!"

"We've got to get to the factory!" Jeremy said.

"Jeremy's right." Dartz said. He opened the door and ushered the gang out.

"You go." Garrett said. "I'll take care of him."

"Be careful." Lisa said.

"Aren't I always?"

"Okay! To the factory, everyone!" Dartz shouted. "It's only a matter of time before XANA sends another one, or Doc gets beat!" Dartz led the way to the factory.

"If you're-" began Odd.

"Odd!" exclaimed Ulrich. "I swear to God, if you start singing, I will knock you out!"

"Okay!" They shot right down the manhole, and jumped on scooters. Chris jumped on a 21speeder bike that he brought with him, and followed the others. When they reached the other manhole, they scrambled up the ladder, and ran all the way to the factory. They slid down the ropes, and rapidly punched in the code for the elevator. They hurriedly made their way to the scanner room.

"I'll send you three at a time," Jeremy said over the intercom. "The activated tower is in the Mountain Region." The scanners opened, and Ulrich, Odd, and Yumi stepped in.

"Transfer, Ulrich. Transfer, Odd. Transfer, Yumi. Scanner, Ulrich. Scanner, Odd. Scanner Yumi. Virtualization." Ulrich, Odd and Yumi were assembled on Lyoko, and dropped off in the  
Mountain Region. The rest of the gang was virtualized. Aelita, William, and Riou landed gracefully on the ground.

"I still can't seem to get the hang of falling," Chris said. "Is there another way to do this?"

"No," Odd said. "But don't worry. You'll get used to it."

"The activated tower is just north of you," said Jeremie. "I'm sending you your vehicles." Jeremie began rapidly pounding the keys on the terminal. "Vehicles virtualized."

"Thanks, Jer," Yumi said, hopping onto the Overwing. Aelita hopped onto the Overwing with Yumi, Riou and Sharon rode the Overgear together, Ulrich and Odd rode the Overbike, and Chris and Duke borrowed the Overboard from Odd. William and Dartz, in his beast form, remained on the ground.

"We'll run." Dartz said. The gang took off, William and Dartz easily keeping up with the others.

"I see the tower," Ulrich said.

"Xana sure isn't putting up much of a fight," Chris said. Just then, he felt a laser bolt hit the Overboard. He looked behind him and found a trio of Flying Mantas behind him. "Me and my big mouth. We got company, guys!"

"I see 'em," Odd said. "Ulrich, get me into the air!"

"You got it," Ulrich said. He levitated upward with the bike, and got behind one of the Mantas. Odd then jumped off of the Overbike, and onto a Manta. He dug his claws into the Manta's back, making it go out of control.

"I never get tired of doing this! I'll take care of these guys! Just get Aelita to the tower!"

"Later, Odd!" Duke said. As they moved away from Odd, they saw a group of Krabes blocking their way to the tower. Duke and Chris jumped off of the Overboard and let it crash into a Krabe, devirtualizing it. The others followed suit, and each made their way to their own enemy. Chris drew out his sword hilt.

"Wakizashi," he said. His sword hilt extended into a long samurai sword. He began attacking the Krabe, at first hitting its underside, but to no avail. He then used the sword to take out its legs, and jumped on top of it, subsequently stabbing it through the eye. Dartz ran at a bunch of Bloks and used his claws to start destroying them. Ulrich had finished taking out a Krabe of his own, and was now working on another. Yumi threw her fan at one of the Bloks that Dartz was fighting, and destroyed it.

"Get Aelita to the tower!" Dartz shouted as he slashed at another Blok. "We'll handle these!" Duke shot a bolt of lightning at an incoming Megatank, causing it to fall into the digital sea.

"Aelita! Get to the tower!" Yumi said. Aelita ran to the tower, and made her way to the terminal. She tapped the screen once.

AELITA

CODE: LYOKO

The Tower began to go dark.

"Tower, deactivated," Aelita said. Jeremie punched the ENTER key.

"Return to the past, now," he said. The usual white bubble made its way across the city.


	6. Author's Note Please Read!

I have created a new poll and placed it on my profile page. Please visit my page and vote. This note will be deleted when the next chapter of this story is published.


	7. Profile Update

To my loyal readers:

I hope you all haven't missed me too much. Being a high school senior, having a part time job that keeps me busy anywhere from 20 to 30 hours a week, and acting as a high-ranking member of my high school's JROTC program doesn't give me a lot of free time that I can use for things other than homework and what small social life I may or may not have.

I'm going to go ahead and tell you all this: I _do _intent to continue writing. I'm sure many of you are angry (or slightly disgruntled at the very least) that I have not updated many of my fanfictions in quite a while, but rest assured that nothing that is currently in progress on my profile is going to be deleted or discontinued. Everything will be finished eventually. With my last semester as a high school student finally begun, I've enjoyed the discovery that my schedule has cleared the air in front of me quite a bit. This means that I will be able to write more, and spend more time cooperating with my close friend Cdc100 on several ideas we've been working on for new stories. So right now I'm going to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about everything I'm working on and all my plans for the near future.

Prince's Return- For those who haven't read it, Prince's Return is the third story in a continuing series of Code Lyoko fanfictions, which started with my first fanfiction, Xana's Apprentice. I do plan on continuing this, but I'm having a MAJOR case of writer's block (like, a two-year-long case, if it wasn't obvious). Right now I'm going to stay with my original plans and keep this story on hiatus until I finish rewriting it's predecessors.

Virus Series Rewrites- Due to aging and changes in my writing style, I found the original versions of my first few stories to be a little haphazard in quality to say the least, so I decided to rewrite them. I may or may not keep the originals up, that's up to you guys. You can feel free to tell me what you think in reviews. I _am _still working on these. I'm mostly finished with Xana's Apprentice and parts of Xana's Revenge are also complete. However, I don't want to make the changes to the published chapters until I've finished both.

Cards of Lyoko- This story is actually mostly the work of Cdc100's expert hand, while I simply do the editing and posting. Due to the popping up of a few new ideas on my part, this is also possibly going to be rewritten. However, updates will not continue until Prince's Return is complete.

Memories of the Past- This story is a work I took up from an idea created by Fanfiction user NoWordsDiscribeMe. Many people have voiced their approval of what I've done so far in this story, and I'll let them know that I am still working on it from time to time. As my current work comes to an end this story will begin to see more and more updates.

Namine's Grace- This is the story that is currently taking up the majority of my writing time. It is also my favorite work so far, although that doesn't say much for its quality, as it is not something I began writing for myself, but for a friend who is very close to me and was, at the time, going through a rough patch after breaking up with her boyfriend of two years. I chose to finish this story first because, besides it being my favorite, it also makes my friend much happier. There is also the continued support of the few loyal readers who still follow me and voted for me to finish this first. This is my continued plan, and I have many ideas for where I could take the story from here.

That's all for my current stuff. Now I'll tell you all a bit about what I have planned for the future.

Number XV- A personal rewrite of Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days containing my Nobody OC, Xeno, who appears in Namine's Grace. This story will not follow the plot of the game to a tee, but it will contain most if not all of the game's major plot points, just with my added OC. I may or may not change the ending sequence of the game to fit my own personal belief of how Roxas and Xion's story with the Organization should have ended. Again, up to you guys.

Untitled Sequel to Prince's Return- I originally planned to finish off the Virus timeline at Prince's Return and move on to other things, but new ideas have started popping into my head about a possible sequel, so I decided to go through with it. This story will take place a few months after Prince's Return ends, as Dartz finally returns to school in France. My reason for continuing the series past its original intended end is that I'm just not happy with how it's planned to turn out being the final ending to the series, more for personal reasons than artistic reasons. I won't say any more here, for fear of spoilers and possible hate mail.

Lightning Strikes- Although through my rewrites I wrote the Xiaolin Showdown crossover out of the Virus series, Auron was the first OC I ever created, and I simply didn't want to let him go without at least giving him some screen time. So this will be a Xiaolin Showdown story centering around how the Dragons meet Auron and how they become a team.

Untitled Pokemon x Code Lyoko crossover- A work between Cdc100 and myself, which has been in the works for some time but has yet to come past its planning phase. Since August I've had two polls asking viewer opinions on certain points of planning in the story, and so far two votes have been cast for one, and only one for the other. This is partially my fault for not foreseeing the lack of activity on my profile and advertising the polls using Author notes in my stories. So here I'm going to do just that. For two weeks after this note is posted I will have a viewer opinion poll up on my profile. If you are interested in this story, please give us your opinions. As soon as the poll is closed I will announce the results in a profile update and the second poll will be posted. Once these two polls are finished, the results will be announced and we will begin working on the story itself.

Now that that's done, I would also like to take this opportunity to tell you a bit about what I do outside of writing fanfictions. As I've told you all before, I'm a high school senior. I have a girlfriend, who has been with me and somehow put up with every single thing I've done, good and bad (mostly the latter), for the past two years. I have a past as an avid gamer, but this has become more of a recreation for me over the past few years. My main hobby is the Army JROTC program at my high school, where I hold the Battalion Executive Officer position after three years in the program. My grades are decent, mostly A's and B's with the occasional C here and there. I plan to go to college, though where I will go I have not yet decided. My future plans are to commission in the Army as an officer in the Military Police Corps with a forensics background.

Thank you all for taking the time to read this update, and I hope everyone has had their questions answered. If anyone has a question to ask about something I've said here, or if you have advice or ideas, please feel free to ask it in a review or a PM.

Dartz the Fire Demon


End file.
